- Report: US murder rate hits lowest level since 1900
Source: Axios
“Murders fell 21% last year in 35 large U.S. cities — the biggest one-year drop ever and likely the lowest rate since 1900, Axios-reviewed data shows. The decline signals a complete reversal of the COVID-era crime wave. 11 of 13 tracked crimes were lower in 2025 than in 2024, according to data compiled by the Council on Criminal Justice.” (01/22/26)
- Massive Winter Storm With Damaging Ice In South, Heavy Snow From Texas To Northeast To Affect Over 230 Million
Source: Weather.com
“A major, widespread, long-lasting winter storm will hammer parts of the South, Midwest and Northeast Friday through Monday with potentially damaging ice and heavy snow for millions from New Mexico and Texas to parts of New England. This storm will lead to widespread dangerous travel and its destructive South ice storm could lead to long-lasting power outages and tree damage. The storm has been named Winter Storm Fern by The Weather Channel. According to The Weather Company forecasters, Fern could affect over 230 million in the U.S. with snow and/or ice, two-thirds of the nation’s estimated population.” (01/22/26)
- US applications for jobless benefits inch up last week to a still-low 200,000
Source: Orange County Register
“The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits inched up last week but U.S. layoffs remain historically low despite signs of a softening labor market. U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 17 rose by 1,000 to 200,000, up from 199,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 207,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting. Applications for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.” (01/22/26)
- Autopsy: Immigrant died by homicide at ICE gang lair
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) originally said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him. But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.” (01/22/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-el-paso-ice-detention-death-homicide-9.7055697
- Mediterranean: Pirates hijack oil tanker
Source: NBC News
“France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.” (01/22/26)
- Ex-con congresscritter pushes bill to bar recent ICE gang associates from satellite gangs
Source: Fox News
“A Democratic lawmaker in Washington state introduced a bill this week called the ICE Out Act of 2026, which would prohibit state law enforcement agencies from hiring anyone that has taken a job as a sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. The legislation was introduced by state Rep. Tarra Simmons, who served time for three felony convictions for possession of controlled substances and retail theft in 2011 before having her criminal record cleared. ‘In this Washington, we have worked incredibly hard to build trust between law enforcement and community,’ Simmons said in a press release. ‘In most Washington agencies, the men and women who step up to serve have developed a culture of holding each other accountable to the highest professional standards. The last thing we need is infiltration of ICE agents trained during the Trump Administration to send us backwards.” (01/22/25)
- Philippines: Journalist sentenced to political imprisonment
Source: New York Times
“A Philippine court on Thursday convicted a journalist on charges of financing terrorism and sentenced her to more than a decade in prison, in a ruling that rights and press groups said was a blatant attack on press freedom. The Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City gave the journalist, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, and her former roommate Marielle Dumaquil a jail sentence of 12 to 18 years, the maximum allowed. But the women, who have been in prison since they were arrested in 2020, were acquitted of charges of possessing firearms and explosives. … The authorities said [Cumpio’s] coverage of the community and local politics was biased in favor of communist insurgents, who have long had a presence in the region. She was convicted of being a conduit for funds for the rebels.” (01/22/26)
- Von der Leyen wins no-confidence vote in European Parliament
Source: Politico
“Ursula von der Leyen comfortably survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday. A large majority of members of the European Parliament backed the center-right European Commission president in a confidence motion brought by the far-right Patriots for Europe group. Of the 720 EU lawmakers, 565 showed up to vote. Only 165 backed toppling the Commission, with 390 voting against and 10 abstaining. Von der Leyen was not in Strasbourg for the vote. The motion’s proponents argued that von der Leyen and her team of commissioners should be dismissed over their handling of the EU–Mercosur trade deal, which they claim undermines European farmers by opening up the European market to unfair competition.” (01/22/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/ursula-von-der-leyen-wins-no-confidence-vote-european-parliament/
- Judge Blocks US Regime From Reviewing Seized Washington Post Devices
Source: New York Times
“A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government not to review materials seized during the search of a Washington Post reporter’s home last week. The ruling, from Magistrate Judge William B. Porter, was in response to a legal filing by the newspaper on Wednesday arguing that the seizures violated the First Amendment and demanding the return of the items. ‘The seizure chills speech, cripples reporting and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on protected materials,’ the company said in the filing. Judge Porter wrote that The Post and the reporter, Hannah Natanson, had shown ‘good cause’ to maintain the ‘status quo’ while the issues were being sorted out in court.” (01/22/26)
- JP Morgan boss: Trump credit card plan would be “a disaster”
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“US President Donald Trump’s proposal to cap credit card costs would be ‘an economic disaster’, the boss of one of the world’s biggest banks has warned. JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said the plan would remove credit from the majority of Americans and hit restaurants, retailers, travel firms and schools. Trump this month wrote on Truth Social that interest rates on credit cards should be limited to 10% for one year from 20 January. The cap has yet to come into force and the president did not say how it might be introduced or whether such a move would be legally enforceable. Asked about the cap at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Dimon said: ‘It would be an economic disaster, and I’m not making that up because our business … we would survive it by the way.'” (01/22/25)
- Germany: Regime expels Russian diplomat after a suspect is arrested in an espionage case
Source: ABC News
“The German government on Thursday announced the expulsion of a Russian diplomat over a case in which a woman was arrested on suspicion of supplying information related to the war in Ukraine to an intelligence contact at Moscow’s embassy in Berlin. The Foreign Ministry said in a social media post that ‘the German government doesn’t tolerate espionage in Germany, still less under the disguise of diplomatic status.’ It said it summoned the Russian ambassador and told him it was expelling ‘the person in question who spied on behalf of Russia.’ The main suspect in the case, a German-Ukrainian dual citizen, was arrested in Berlin on Wednesday.” (01/22/26)
- Japan shuts reactor at world’s biggest nuclear plant a day after restart
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The restart of a reactor at the world’s largest nuclear power plant has been suspended in Japan, a day after the process began, its operator, which also manages the wrecked Fukushima plant, said. But the reactor remains ‘stable.’ The No 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in north-central Japan – closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster – reactivated on Wednesday as plant workers started removing neutron-absorbing control rods from the core to start stable nuclear fission. But the process had to be suspended hours later due to a malfunction related to control rods, which are essential to safely starting up and shutting down reactors, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) said.” (01/22/26)
- Bondi: Minnesota anti-gang activists arrested in wake of church protest
Source: Fox News
“Federal authorities have arrested two anti-ICE agitators after a mob stormed a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday. Bondi named Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen as the suspects. FBI Director Kash Patel said Armstrong’s arrest was in connection with a violation of the FACE Act, which prohibits interfering with the exercise of religion at a place of worship. Armstrong is expected to appear Thursday before U.S. Judge Douglas Micko. Allen is charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, the Department of Homeland Security said.” (01/22/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-agitator-arrested-wake-church-invasion-bondi-says
- Man charged in “largest jewelry heist in US history” avoids trial by getting deported
Source: Seattle Times
“A man facing federal charges in what authorities have called the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history was deported to Ecuador late last month, bringing the case against him to a crashing halt, according to recent court filings. Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores was one of seven men charged last year with breaking into a Brinks big rig and stealing around $100 million worth of gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and luxury watches in 2022. … Flores faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment. He has pleaded not guilty. But, in a complicated sequence of events, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Flores on or about Dec. 29, according to his attorney, John D. Robertson. In a Jan. 9 motion to dismiss the case against Flores, Robertson said he had ‘just learned’ his client had been deported.” (01/22/26)
- GA: Pol pleads guilty to lying to collect pandemic unemployment benefits
Source: CBS News
“A former Georgia House member has pleaded guilty to lying to collect federal unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Karen Bennett’s guilty plea to one count of making false statements to collect $13,940 had been expected after she waived her indictment on Jan. 5. Bennett, 70, had resigned from the House in the days before she was charged. … Prosecutors said Bennett, a physical therapist, lied in 2020 when she stated she was being prevented by quarantine from working for Metro Therapy Providers, a company Bennett owned. Prosecutors said that in reality, Bennett’s role with the company was administrative and she worked from a home office, instead of providing therapy to clients. They also allege that Metro Therapy continued operating and generating income after a brief disruption. In addition, prosecutors say Bennett failed to disclose that she was also receiving $905 in week pay from a church.” (01/21/26)
- UK: Barron Trump called UK police after seeing woman “beat up”
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Donald Trump’s youngest son contacted UK police saying he witnessed a friend in London being ‘beat up’ during a video call, a court has heard. Barron Trump, 19, told police he had friends call 999 from the US so that he could report the alleged attack in January 2025. Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of assault and two counts of rape, among other charges, against the alleged victim. He denies assault, actual bodily harm, two counts of rape, intentional strangulation and perverting the course of justice by pressuring the woman to withdraw her complaints. Trump called the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on 18 January last year, the court heard. Shortly after placing the call, the US president’s fifth child contacted the police and said she was being assaulted.” (01/22/25)
- CA: El Super union workers rally for protection from ICE in new contract
Source: Orange County Register
“About 100 community supporters and union food workers with El Super Markets in Southern California rallied Wednesday, Jan. 21 at the Mexican supermarket chain’s headquarters in Commerce, seeking improved wages and protection from immigration raids. … Last fall, the union rejected a company offer of wage increases ranging from one penny to 22 cents hourly. The union also is seeking health and safety protections to prevent injuries, sufficient staffing and guaranteed work hours. The union also is upset that the chain won’t adopt protections during workplace immigration raids by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or permit some workers who need to take time off to deal with immigration issues.” (01/21/26)
- Carney Speech: The Rupture is a Necessary Part of the Transition
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Writ large, Canada’s move away from the US and toward China is just the latter part of Mike’s answer, in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises — ‘Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly’ — to the question of how he went bankrupt. Which, in turn, is just a waypoint in another transition. In Mike’s case, it was all downhill from the bankruptcy. In America’s case, who knows? It’s easy to just blame Trump for all this craziness, but it’s also a little bit lazy. Yes, Trump’s trade and economic policies seem purpose-built for the task of dismantling American prosperity at home and power (‘soft’ and ‘hard’) abroad. In reality, though, the American empire and the supposed global ‘rules-based order’ have been in continual decline pretty much since that happy accident 80 years ago, when World War 2 ended with most of the world’s industry wrecked, but America’s untouched.” (01/22/26)
- Towards A Complete Libertarianism
Source: Isonomia Quarterly
by Kevin Vallier“Libertarian political philosophy in the analytic tradition nears the half-century mark. Libertarian theorists have produced sophisticated defenses of limited government and individual liberty, but these defenses diverge in fundamental ways. The divergences reflect incompatible views about the nature and source of justice itself. This philosophical diversity may point toward a more complete understanding of libertarian justice. Two recent works capture these divergent strands. Billy Christmas’s Property and Justice advances a natural rights libertarianism that derives a complete theory of justice from the single principle of non-interference. Nick Cowen’s Neoliberal Social Justice builds a contractualist case for classical liberal institutions that takes seriously the epistemic limitations plaguing any attempt at social organization.” (01/22/26)
https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-3-issue-4/towards-a-complete-libertarianism/
- The Case for Making Every Vote Count
Source: The Dispatch
by Larry Diamon“A growing share of voters (some 60 percent) are dissatisfied with the way our democracy is working and feel alienated from both major political parties. One factor is polarization: the growing emotional and policy distance and declining trust between supporters of the two parties. Another is the parties’ perceived failure to address the country’s economic and social problems. Related to this is a sense that both parties have become too captive to their most militant elements. … Ranked-choice voting (RCV) for president in November (state by state) could ease this problem by enabling voters to cast a sincere vote for their first preference, knowing that if their candidate didn’t make it and no one won an initial majority, their vote would be transferred to their second preference.” (01/22/26)
- As Republicans embrace Big Government, they are becoming “Depublicans”
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy“For some years now, conservatives who believe in free markets and limited government have been labeled RINOs — ‘Republicans in name only’ — as GOP liberals or moderates have historically been known. The MAGA movement flings this term as an insult and a signal that respecting the realities of supply and demand instead of endorsing price controls is a character flaw. But after watching the last few weeks unfold, it’s hard not to ask this: If believing in markets makes you a RINO, what exactly do we call Republicans who now openly embrace ideas lifted from the playbooks of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts)? How about ‘Depublicans?'” (01/22/26)
- Greenland as a Stress Test for MAGA Loyalty
Source: Reason
by Daniel Hannan“Pollsters have long understood that the act of casting a ballot creates a bond. Once we have voted for a candidate, we feel invested in him. We don’t want to admit to ourselves that we might have made a mistake. … Will anything turn MAGA against [Donald Trump]? I wondered whether, by threatening to annex Greenland, he had found the one issue where his base would not follow him. He was elected as the candidate who would put an end to foreign adventurism, and voters opposed taking Greenland by 71 percent to 4 percent — 4 percent being, coincidentally, the ‘lizardman’s constant,’ the estimated proportion of people in any poll who will give insincere or demented replies. Perhaps that is why, as I write, he seems to be backing down from the demand.” (01/22/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/22/greenland-as-a-stress-test-for-maga-loyalty/
- Oppose Israel’s Abuses While You Still Can
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“I’ve seen some Australians expressing confusion as to whether or not they can still legally criticize Israel online after new ‘hate speech’ laws were passed on Tuesday under the pretense of combatting ‘antisemitism’. The answer is yes, and you definitely should keep opposing Israel and its genocidal atrocities. I am worried that these new laws may indirectly have a bit of a chilling effect on pro-Palestine activism due to Australians not understanding these new laws and what people are allowed to do without being jailed. … it is still legal for Australians to oppose Israel and to associate with pro-Palestine groups — and we should. What’s changed is that now those groups can be classified as ‘hate groups’ and banned, similarly to how Palestine Action has been banned in the UK. But this hasn’t happened yet, and hopefully never will.” (01/22/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/22/oppose-israels-abuses-while-you-still-can/
- Our Expanding Immigration-Control Tyranny
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“One of the most important lessons in the loss of liberty is how the federal government, especially the all-powerful national-security branch of the federal government, enlists the support of the American people for measures that destroy their very own rights and liberties. A good example of this phenomenon is America’s socialist (i.e., central planning) system of immigration controls, which millions of Americans have come to support on the basis that it supposedly protects the nation from invaders, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, terrorists, communists, anarchists, and other scary people. By converting Americans into a fear-filled people, the federal government has been able to destroy their liberty through an immigration police state accompanies America’s socialist system of immigration controls.” (01/22/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/01/22/our-expanding-immigration-control-tyranny/
- The UK Is Allergic To Free Speech
Source: Persuasion
by Leonora Barclay“Over the last 18 months, the grip of the [Online Safety Act] has become more apparent to internet users with each click. The law was passed by the British parliament in October 2023 but came into effect in stages, the last of which was in July 2025. Among other things, it requires tech companies to take action against illegal content on their platforms, such as child sexual abuse, revenge porn, and fraud. Concerningly, however, the OSA also requires tech companies to protect children from content that is not illegal, but which is nevertheless deemed ‘harmful.'” (01/22/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-uk-is-allergic-to-free-speech
- What the Civil Rights Movement Can Teach Us About Resisting Fascism Today
Source: OtherWords
by Mitchell Zimmerman“In the mid-1960s, I joined the freedom movement in the South as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Those were heady years, and I am proud of my small role in the great achievements of that time. Our movement breathed new life into American democracy, inspiring and teaching people who led many of the other liberation movements of the 1960s and ‘70s. It opened up schools, education, jobs, public accommodations, voting power, electoral office, and judgeships to people of color in the South and throughout the country. But there is also a fight for history.” (01/22/25)
https://otherwords.org/dr-king-would-be-standing-beside-those-standing-up-for-our-democracy/
- A Different Midterm Milestone
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley“Redistricting measures in Texas and California have all eyes on the Nov. 3 midterm election. That contest also marks 30 years since the people of California won a victory for civil rights, now ignored by the ruling class in the Golden State and across the nation. … The California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), Proposition 209 on the November 1996 ballot, was the project of California State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) professors Glynn Custred and Thomas Wood, backed by University of California regent Ward Connerly. CCRI ended racial and ethnic preferences in state education, employment, and state contracting. … Long after the people approved CCRI, the University of California built a vast DEI bureaucracy, with UCLA paying a vice chancellor for ‘equity, diversity, and inclusion,’ a salary of $440,000.” (01/22/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/22/a-different-midterm-milestone/
- The Information War Over Antidepressants
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Peter C. Gøtzsche“Stat News hit the ethical and scientific bottom two weeks ago when they published an article by Stephen B. Soumerai, professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Christine Y. Lu, professor at the Sydney Pharmacy School of the University of Sydney. I have rarely seen so much disinformation in so few words, only 1,220. I reproduce the article in its entirety, in italics, with my comments.” (01/22/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-information-war-over-antidepressants/
- Midterms: Not About “Affordability” Just More Trump Hatred
Source: Town Hall
by Larry Elder“No, the midterms will not turn on the issue of ‘affordability.’ If affordability truly were decisive, Republicans would easily retain the House and the Senate. Consider the economic backdrop. Gas prices are at a five-year low, with gas stations in several states selling a gallon of regular for under $2. Several times since Trump’s reelection, the stock market indexes have recorded all-time highs. GDP growth hit 4.3% in the third quarter of 2025. Wage growth is exceeding inflation, but as always, some benefit more than others. Inflation itself is under 3% and trending lower.” (01/22/25)
- A Government Of Influencers, By Influencers, For Influencers
Source: The Bulwark
by Will Sommer“The perverse race to find — or gin up — viral footage in Minnesota and other ICE hotspots.” (01/22/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/right-wing-influencers-ice-minnesota
- Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Marcos Giansante“Public policies are rarely judged by the effects they produce. They are far more often evaluated by the intentions they declare. In The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell identifies this habit, not as a mere analytical error, but as a moral failure. Intentions have no causal power, results do. This distinction offers a precise lens for understanding contemporary fiscal policy when taxation is presented as social action. Taxes are seldom described as extraction; they are framed as instruments of justice, care, and/or inclusion. Language shifts attention from effects to purposes; cost fades; intention becomes an alibi.” (01/22/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/why-good-intentions-are-not-enough
- We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower
Source: Wired
by Garrett M Graff“With Donald Trump’s actions in Greenland, Minneapolis, and Venezuela, a foreign enemy could not invent a better chain of events to wreck the standing of the United States.” (01/22/26)
- US Must Stop Pointing Fingers and Admit: We Are the Bad Guys
Source: Common Dreams
by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler“Every single moving mouth and face I see in the media seems to be obligated to stress the barbarity and illegitimacy of the Maduro government to establish some acceptable moral clarity even before they can carry on with any analysis of the current political situation, or the current political conditions in the world. Likewise, each personality seems obligated to make similar statements as a prerequisite to speak on the Iranian regime and the religionists controlling the country. Each is evil they must claim, and that they expressively disagree and denounce them in all shape and form. Each is beyond the specter of acceptable civilization, they must state. Each has no inkling of morality, but is simply obsessed with power and control. This was the same in any discussion of Hamas in Gaza.” (01/22/25)
- How hugely cheap a carbon tax would have been
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall“Of course it’s possible to insist that climate change isn’t a thing, if it is it’s of no matter, or that we’re not doing it. It’s also true that whatever the truth of any of that society as a whole insists it is, it is and we are therefore something must be done. At which point we should have had a carbon tax …. At which point we would be done. Lower petrol tax and raise, modestly, taxes elsewhere and we’ve solved climate change. All of which is, of course, just a repeat of the grand lesson of the 20th century. Those places which tried to use planning, direction and insistence as a method of economic management remained poor. All of those that used markets and prices to achieve the same end, that of economic management, became grossly rich by global or historical standards.” (01/22/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/how-hugely-cheap-a-carbon-tax-would-have-been
- Housing Lessons From Spain
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler“Tourism might have exacerbated Spain’s housing problem, but it’s not the root cause. The gap between sluggish supply and explosive demand has resulted in a deficit of around 700,000 homes. As a result, rental rates have doubled and house prices risen by 44% since 2020. In its last Financial Stability Report, released in November, the Bank of Spain identified historically low construction levels as a key factor in the deficit. … Still, it’s easier to blame tourists.” (01/22/26)
- Fixing Central Bank Politicisation
Source: Quillette
by Jai Kedia“Trump’s assault on the Federal Reserve demands a structural solution: rules-based monetary policy that protects central bank independence whilst delivering better economic results.” (01/22/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/01/22/fixing-central-bank-politicisation-federal-reserve-trump/
- Predation Without Apology: Trump Defrocks the Long Western Tradition
Source: CounterPunch
by L Ali Khan“The Trump predation does not mark a departure from Western history; it signals the end of its traditional justifications. For centuries, Western ruling elites relied on intricate theological and philosophical frameworks to justify predation—the taking of foreign resources through force, deception, or coercion. During President Donald Trump’s tenure, these frameworks are no longer necessary. Predation persists, but its rhetorical disguise has been stripped away. What remains is the U.S. asymmetric power advantage, openly asserting itself against weaker targets like Venezuela, while remaining cautious around stronger foes like China. To understand Trump’s predatory stance toward Venezuela, Greenland, and possibly other targets, one must resist the urge to see it as abnormal.” (01/22/26)
- It Profits a Nation Nothing to Give Its Soul for the Whole World … But for Greenland?
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman“Trump has this bizarrely durable ability to win by losing. He can be so appalling in his behavior, so simultaneously aggressive and craven, demanding to get his way in everything one minute then desperate for a deal — any deal — the next that one might easily forget whether he’s actually achieved any objectives at all in substantive terms. More often than not he does nothing but set his own declared aims back — and yet his domestic opponents, trying to block him as he lunges about, often wind up in such contorted positions themselves that with the next lunge he can push them over.” (01/22/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/it-profits-a-nation-nothing-to-give
- Heroes and Tragedy at the American Founding
Source: Law & Liberty
by Kevin Gutzman“Popular historian Joseph J. Ellis’s latest book, The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, examines the persistence of slavery in the wake of the American Founding and the American Revolution’s impact on American Indians. Expulsion of the British from the Thirteen Colonies and John Jay’s diplomatic masterstroke yielding the Mississippi River rather than the Appalachian Mountains as America’s western boundary would have effects on blacks, Indians and ultimately the American Union that no one could have foreseen. This is what Ellis considers ‘the tragic side of the American Founding.’ What is new about Ellis’s telling of this tale is that he apportions responsibility differently than has become customary in recent years.” (01/22/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/heroes-and-tragedy-at-the-american-founding/
- Mission behind Trump’s Board of Peace is simple, and critics keep getting it wrong
Source: New York Post
by Jonathan Schanzer“President Trump is making big moves the world over. From nabbing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to threatening the conquest of Greenland to pushing for a Ukraine-Russia cease-fire, Trump’s foreign policy plate is full. The World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, is still buzzing about it. Overshadowed by these bigger headlines but no less important is Trump’s newly minted Board of Peace. The board is designed to implement the president’s 20-point peace plan for the war-torn Gaza Strip, as endorsed verbatim by the UN Security Council in November. Notable critics, including French President Emmanuel Macron, assert that Trump … is trying to supplant the United Nations as part of a wider overhaul of the international system that, in the wake of World War II, produced the UN, NATO and many of the other organizations that are steadily losing relevance today.” (01/21/25)
- Courageous Carney vs. Demented Donald
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Canada’s leader is a sane adult. America’s leader isn’t.” (01/22/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/courageous-carney-vs-demented-donald
- Defining Money
Source: Cobden Centre
by James Turk“Many modern economists struggle to define money. Often beginning with an historical overview of the concept of moneyness, they generally end by describing the functions of money. What money ‘does’ is not a definition of what money ‘is.’ Another way they strive to define money is with the use of adjectives. A common example is ‘sound money,’ which is like saying ‘wet water.’ The adjective is superfluous because the noun is intuitively understood, or at least should be, as it was to the pioneers of the Austrian School. Although I obviously cannot speak for Menger and Mises, their intuitive understanding of money is different from that of modern writers. It had to be because the environmental factors when they were writing a century or more ago were so very different from today given the then prevailing everyday use of gold and silver.” (01/22/26)
- The US-Israel Hybrid War Against Iran
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs and Sybil Fares“The question is not if the US and Israel will attack Iran, but when. In the nuclear age, the US refrains from all-out war, since it can easily lead to nuclear escalation. Instead, the US and Israel are waging war against Iran through a combination of crushing economic sanctions, targeted military strikes, cyberwarfare, stoking unrest, and unrelenting misinformation campaigns. This combination strategy is called ‘hybrid warfare.'” (01/22/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/jeffrey_sachs/2026/01/21/the-us-israel-hybrid-war-against-iran/?
- Does Humanomics Need a Moral Anchor?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Dr. Edward W Younkins“At its core, Humanomics aims to integrate moral and social dimensions into the scientific study of economic behavior, recapturing insights from Adam Smith that have been marginalized in mainstream economic theory. Rather than reducing humans to narrow maximizers of utility, Humanomics treats them as sentient, social, purposeful, learning agents whose actions are shaped by sentiments, norms, ethical commitments, and reflective judgment.” (01/22/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/01/does-humanomics-need-moral-anchor.html
- How to Bring Down Grocery Prices
Source: Washington Monthly
by Claire Kelloway“During his successful campaign to become New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani promised he would combat rising grocery prices by setting up a city-run grocery store in each of New York’s five boroughs. Critics have slammed the proposal as a socialist fantasy that would only create uncompetitive, Soviet-style stores. They point out, rightly, that other American cities and towns have tried running grocery stores in recent years and their track record is not great. … But if the whole concept of government-run grocery stores is untenable, someone needs to alert the Pentagon, because since 1867, the U.S. military has operated discount grocery stores called commissaries, with great success for active-duty service members, certain veterans, and their families.” (01/22/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/22/how-to-bring-down-grocery-prices/
- My Bank Froze “My” Account — Is Permissioned Access Still Money?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book“Banks can freeze your account and stop your payments at any time, for any reason. Thus, bank deposits fail any rudimentary sniff test of ‘money,’ yet everyone treats them as synonymous with the freest, simplest monetary media they’ve ever seen. It just always works, right?” (01/22/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/my-bank-froze-my-account-is-permissioned-access-still-money/
- Rio Grande: Once an Inviting River, Now a Militarized Border
Source: The American Prospect
by Elena Bruess“As a child, Michelle Serrano would take trips to Boca Chica with her grandmother. From her home in Brownsville, the drive ran east through Texas wetlands and countryside before landing on miles of beach, stretching far down the Gulf Coast just above the U.S.-Mexico border. They’d spend the day there, swimming, laying out — which didn’t cost anything, unlike at South Padre Island to the north. For them, it was the people’s beach. Today, decades later, it’s hard for Serrano to believe those memories. It’s early December at Boca Chica Beach. A thick fog has settled over the sand dunes as Serrano pulls up the hood of her jacket to block the coastal wind. Already, she had seen four U.S. Border Patrol trucks driving along the sand—trucks she knows will slow down as the drivers stare at her with suspicion. ” (01/22/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/22/trump-mexico-rio-grande-militarized-border-patrol/
- Marginal Returns of Regulation
Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy“Whenever I think about things from an economic perspective, I start with the assumption that the present state of affairs is efficient (my null hypothesis, if you will). That is to say, I start with the assumption that all profit opportunities have been eaten up and, at least at the present time, there are no failures in the market. Then I consider how likely it is that such an assumption is an approximate representation of reality. That is where methodological individualism and the economic way of thinking come in.” (01/22/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/marginal-returns-of-regulation
- Trump’s Tariffs Made His Farm Bailouts Inevitable
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“In the comic theater of American politics, few spectacles are as reliably absurd as the utopian promises of protectionism. Donald Trump’s tariffs, hailed by their proponents as a bold strike against foreign exploitation, have instead proven to be a blunt instrument of economic self-sabotage — particularly for the nation’s farmers. From his first administration to the present day these policies have not only disrupted free markets but have necessitated a cascade of government bailouts, turning independent producers into wards of the state. Such interventions are not savvy trade strategy but are classic crony capitalism: politicians picking winners and losers, all while taxpayers foot the bill for the inevitable fallout.” (01/22/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/trumps-tariffs-made-his-farm-bailouts-inevitable
- After Trump, the Flood
Source: Liberal Currents
by Alan Elrod“Donald Trump took to the stage at Davos yesterday and made clear what keen observers of American politics already knew: the old order is dead. This past week, international relations experts like Robert Kagan and Paul Musgrave and commentators like Jonathan V. Last have all detailed how Donald Trump’s aggression against Greenland, use of unilateral military action, and repeated rebukes of our global allies have finally brought an end to the post-war international order that sustained American power for eighty years. NATO has been rendered little more than a walking corpse. The same can be said domestically, particularly as Trump has applied federal power on American citizens in ways unseen in modern history. Nothing is as it was.” (01/22/26)
- Trump’s Attempted Greenland Grab Has Turned America Into a Predatory Power
Source: The UnPopulist
by Berny Belvedere“Territorial seizures are hardly novel phenomena in international relations. What makes this crisis different is that the aggressor is the United States, a close ally of Denmark’s and the architect of the very international order designed to discourage such brazen territorial acquisitiveness. It is particularly absurd since America has had unlimited military access, an open invitation to station whatever forces it wants on Greenland, since World War II. It’s understandable why the Danes and Greenlanders are bewildered at supposed security motivations for the Arctic Anschluss. Throughout the postwar era, a defining tenet of American hegemony has been that military might does not confer territorial rights, and that America itself would resolutely defend weaker nations against the predations of their mightier neighbors. This president has reversed that mission entirely. Under Trump, on the international stage, the U.S. has gone from protector to predator.” (01/21/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-attempted-greenland-grab-has
- How to Tell If Your President Is a Dictator
Source: The Atlantic
by Marc Novicoff“President Trump prosecutes his political opponents; deports immigrants, including some here legally, to foreign prisons without due process; solicits tribute payments from corporations and foreign governments; deploys soldiers to American cities that are not, in fact, in civil-war-level chaos; and puts his name and image on government buildings that quite obviously don’t belong to him. So, a question: What do you call this form of government? Authoritarian? Kleptocratic? Totalitarian? Fascist?” (01/21/26)
- “Venezuela’s Struggle for Freedom: Past Failures, Future Hopes” with Jacek Spendel and José Cordeiro
Source: Liberty International
“On January 13th, Liberty International hosted an engaging webinar titled ‘Venezuela’s Struggle for Freedom: Past Failures, Future Hopes,’ bringing together audiences to reflect on Venezuela’s dramatic past, difficult present, and uncertain yet hopeful future. The discussion was moderated by Jacek Spendel, President of Liberty International, and featured Board Member José Cordeiro as the special guest.” (01/22/26)
- Flying Is Better Than in the Good Old Days, No Matter How Luxurious Those Old Photos Look
Source: Reason
“The big lesson from the past 50 years of American air travel is that the aesthetics matter a lot less than the economics.” (01/22/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 01/22/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Is Lisa Cooked?” (01/22/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/is-lisa-cooked/
- Rising, 01/22/26
Source: The Hill
“Scott Jennings calls out Cameron Kasky over [allegedly] false Trump-Epstein smear: Robby Soave.” (01/22/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5698380-rising-january-22-2026/
- The Daily, 01/22/26
Source: New York Times
“The Global Showdown Over Greenland.” (01/22/26)
- TAC Right Now, 01/22/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Trump Covets Greenland, Europe Freaks Out.” (01/22/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-trump-covets-greenland-europe-freaks-out/
- Radio Atlantic, 01/22/26
Source: The Atlantic
“The Federal Government That Was.” (01/22/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/01/federal-government-workers-trump/685699/
- China Considered, 01/22/26
Source: Hoover Institution
“From Tiananmen to Hong Kong: Generations of Resistance with Rowena He.” (01/22/26)
https://www.hoover.org/research/tiananmen-hong-kong-generations-resistance-rowena-he
- Half the Answer, episode 61
Source: Liberal Currents
“The Year We Lost Everything: Appraising 2025 and Fighting Back in 2026.” (01/22/26)
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2728
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Why the Left Wins (but Why It Isn’t Inevitable).” (01/22/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2728-why-the-left-wins-but-why-it-isnt-inevitable/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/22/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Press Sec. Goes Full Cult as Reviews of Davos Fiasco Turn Brutal.” (01/22/26)
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 01/22/26
- The Fifth Column, episode 541
Source: The Fifth Column
“Trump Would Do Anything For Greenland (But He Won’t Do That).” (01/21/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/trump-would-do-anything-for-greenland